If you asked me my favorite vacation spot when I was younger, I would have told you Paris even though I’d never been there. Over a decade later (WOW! I’m old), I can say I successfully went on my favorite vacation!

We got into Paris on Friday morning. We booked a hotel in Montmartre. If you’re young and you’re visiting Paris, Montmartre is the place to stay! It’s a touristy area with Sacre Coeur, tons of crepe places, souvenir shops, theatres, Moulin Rouge, clubs and everything else you can think of. We walked around Sacre Coeur for a little while before we decided to sit in the pews. A few minutes after we sat down, a mass started! It was really interesting to hear a mass in French. It made me dig back to my high school French classes. On Friday night, I went to the Louvre…for free. That’s right. I saw the Mona Lisa. My roommate is a studio art major, so I got a crash art lesson while walking around the HUGE museum. In fact, it’s so big that if you spend thirty seconds looking at each piece, you’ll stay there for four months straight..and that’s not including time to eat, sleep or use the toilet. Later that night, my roommate and I went to the top of Sacre Coeur (the beautiful church on the highest peak in all of Paris) and saw the entire city lit up. It was beautiful.

On Saturday, we went on a walking tour of the city, and then went back to our rooms to get ready for the night. We went out to a nice dinner and then back to Sacre Coeur.

On Sunday, we went to the Eiffel Tower, which was definitely my favorite part of Paris. It was a beautiful view from the top. At night they light up the Eiffel Tower, and every hour they have a light show. The Eiffel Tower is blue right now and sparkles during the show. It was SO AMAZING. We also went to Notre Dame, which was even more beautiful than I imagined. On our walk back to the metro, we passed the cutest ENGLISH bookstore in the world. I think it is a mix between the bookstore in Harry Potter and the library in Beauty and the Beast. There were books EVERYWHERE and ladders to push around. Needless to say, we had a really great time.

I didn’t want to leave Paris, but I had to. My friends and I have a tradition of taking pictures of us spelling out SLU in as many different countries as we can. Here is a picture of us at the top of the Eiffel Tower!!